“Cei care cred că a citi înseamnă o fugă de realitate se situează la polul opus adevărului: a citi înseamnă a te plasa în prezenţa realului în starea sa cea mai concentrată - ceea ce, în mod bizar, este mai puţin îngrozitor decît să ai de-a face cu permanentele lui diluări.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Нещастието си има и добрите страни: вкъщи вече разполагах със стаята си и с правото да чета. Никога не бях чела толкова, колкото в този период: поглъщах книгите както за да компенсирам дългото нечетене, така и за да мога да посрещна приближаващата криза. Тези, които смятат, че четенето е бягство, са много далеч от истината: да четеш, означава да се сблъскаш с реалността в най-концентрирания й вид, което, колкото и да е странно, е по-малко ужасяващо от това да си имаш работа с размитите й форми.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Quanto a me, le storie di vittime e carnefici mi irritavano oltre misura. Forse per questa ragione non avevo mai avuto un amico o un'amica: avevo visto troppe volte, al liceo e altrove, il nobile nome dell'amicizia accostato a oscure schiavitù inaccettabili, a sistemici dispositivi di umiliazione, a nauseanti sottomissioni, fino a comportamenti da capro espiatorio.
Avevo dell'amicizia una visione sublime: se non era alla Oreste e Pilade, Achille e Patroclo, Montaigne e La Boétie, perché tu sei proprio tu, e io sono proprio io, allora non la volevo. Se lasciava spazio alla minima bassezza, alla minima rivalità, all'ombra di un' invidia, all'ombra di un'ombra, la respingevo a pedate.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“That was what university was: thinking you were going to open yourself up to a universe, and meeting nobody.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“I had always been alone and wouldn't have minded if it had been a matter of choice. It never had been. I dreamed of being integrated, if only to give myself the luxury of subsequently disintegrating.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“I had this notion of passionate love: if it ever happened to me, I wouldn't be able to imagine a moment's separation. What could you bear to have between the loved one and yourself, apart from the blade of a sword?”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“If I had been deceived, it was because, for a moment, I had loved. 'I am one of those who love, not those who hate,' declares Sophocles' Antigone. No one has ever said anything more beautiful.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“Încă de mică pierdusem şirul fetiţelor cărora le oferisem inima mea şi care nu o voiseră.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“In actual fact, creatures like Sabine and myself were the guilty ones: rather than approaching their kin and comforting one another, they loved beyond their means - they needed individuals a thousand miles from their own complexes, they needed Christas, radiant and seductive personalities. And then they were astonished that their friendships turned out badly, as though anything like that could possibly work, a panther with a mouse, a shark with a sardine.”
― Amélie Nothomb, quote from Antichrista
“But I am fearful of it because I hear she is learned in the Four Books, and learning has never accompanied beauty in women.”
― Pearl S. Buck, quote from East Wind: West Wind
“What we should see is that there is none among us with nothing to give, and that giving is our purpose.”
― Nell Gavin, quote from Threads: The Reincarnation of Anne Boleyn
“It's refreshing to be insane. Just as it's liberating to be aware of it.”
― Jonathan Maberry, quote from The Dragon Factory
“Susan B. Anthony. “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do,” she once said, “because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.”
― Barbara Brown Taylor, quote from Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
“Dann kam Achill das Vieh. Des Mörders Eintritt in den Tempel, der, als er im Eingang stand, verdunkelt wurde. Was wollte dieser Mensch. Was suchte er bewaffnet hier im Tempel. Grässlichster Augenblick: Ich wusst es schon. Dann lachte er. Jedes Haar auf meinem Kopf stand mir zu Berge, und in die Augen meines Bruders trat der reine Schrecken. Ich warf mich über ihn und wurde weggeschoben wie ein Ding aus Nichts [...] Lachend, alles lachend. Ihm an den Hals griff. An die Kehle ging [...] Des Bruders Augen aus den Höhlen quellend. Und in Achills Gesicht die Lust. Die nackte grässliche männliche Lust [...] Nun hob der Feind, das Monstrum, im Anblick der Apollon-Statue sein Schwert und trennte meines Bruders Kopf vom Rumpf.”
― Christa Wolf, quote from Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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